Beschreibung:

HANSTEEN, Christopher (1784-1873). Untersuchungen über den Magnetismus der Erde ... übersetzt von P. Treschow Hanson . Oslo and Copenhagen: Jacob Lehmann and C. Gröndahl for the author, 1819. 2 parts in one vol. (lacking the atlas), 4° (247 x 196mm). XXX, 502, [2], 148pp. 5 folding engraved plates. (Some browning.) Contemporary half calf (rubbed). Provenance : Professor Thune (inscription from the author ['fra forfattern'] on front blank).
HANSTEEN, Christopher (1784-1873). Untersuchungen über den Magnetismus der Erde ... übersetzt von P. Treschow Hanson . Oslo and Copenhagen: Jacob Lehmann and C. Gröndahl for the author, 1819. 2 parts in one vol. (lacking the atlas), 4° (247 x 196mm). XXX, 502, [2], 148pp. 5 folding engraved plates. (Some browning.) Contemporary half calf (rubbed). Provenance : Professor Thune (inscription from the author ['fra forfattern'] on front blank). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY. A revision of Hansteen's prize essay presented to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences in 1811, this work is of special importance for its fifth chapter dealing with the mathematical theory of magnetism. Despite disproving the explanation which Hansteen gave of magnetic forces, Gauss admitted that the Danish scientist had been his inspiration. This copy lacks the atlas volume containing 7 maps. A second text volume, planned but never written, was to contain a theory of the aurora borealis and its influence upon magnetism. DSB VI, pp. 106-07; Wheeler Gift I, 756.